Devtober ‘19 – Post Mortem

I started working on this project in the first quarter of 2018. But it is already the end of 2019! That's true!

I work full time in a partly stressful job and so I had never really had time or energy in the last years to work on this project even if I had big plans for it.

Meanwhile I think that this was just an excuse not to have to work on the project and prefer to play something myself.

Yes, my job can be very stressful, but you can always do something in your spare time, even if it's just small things!

State of the project:

During the 1.5 years the project had hardly changed at all, the game mechanics were kept very simple, no sounds, no music. Nevertheless there was already a grid movement and some graphics. Much of the code was undocumented. That's why I had some problems with the code from time to time.

What went wrong?

Actually, not much! Since I had already started the project a long time ago, I knew which mistakes I should not make regarding scope and so on... Also I had used a few new programs I had no idea about. Whether it was wrong or right should be neglected. Nevertheless, I ask myself the following question: "If I hadn't used these programs, would I have progressed much further in my project? I also noticed on day 24 (2 days before the end) that there are still some bugs in the game. But I couldn't fix them for time reasons, because it would take some time to analyse and rewrite the code. Maybe I should have done more testing.

What went right?

Already anticipated: In this one month I had achieved much more than in the whole 1.5 years together or in one month if I had really worked on the project. This satisfies me and gives me strength. Thanks to the small structure and the small scopes I have actually achieved everything I wanted to create. I also learned a lot about the use of new programs.

What’s next?

The project must grow! Grow much further!

But before this happens I take myself in November 1-2 weeks free from game development, because in real life I should have done a certain thing in October already. Nevertheless I have weighed up what has priority.

After this small break I work on the project again. Again with a small structuring of the days, graphics have to be reworked and new ones created. Also new levels have to be created! Actually writing the story first, maybe I'm already playing with the business of having a good writer do it for me who I know.

I don't know if I can keep the plan, but I plan to release the game completely with a story by the end of 2020.

The End!